Some regular Thai bloggers and readers will recognize this popular title. What do Thai's eat for breakfast?
In my experience, whatever's going.
Everything from corn flakes to chicken fried rice to tom yam gai. I've eaten them all as the rooster crows. Odd at first, but, easy to adapt to, especially if you're fat falang.
In fact, Thailand has probably destroyed any habits of food etiquette I may have held before my time here. I'm quite happy to eat mine (and missus) dessert before main course, join others in gobbing food out onto the plate when its a bone or is generally indigestable, plus all that reaching across tables means I'm used to spraying rice everywhere.
One of my favourite breakfast dishes is the 'kow moo deng' that I adore (pork with egg and rice and sweet sauce). The other day, on the way to Bangkok I had a pork curry, with fried egg. It has become my staple 'going to Bangkok' breakfast (above).
With all the things I've heard over the years, I've started to worry that my daily average intake of three fried eggs a day might be leading me up the yellow bricked arterial road, so I thought I'd best check to see if my concerns were warranted.
According to a great little site called www.myfitnesspal.com, a normal, Thai sized pork curry roughly works out at:
- 5 grams carbs
- 16 grams protein
- 44 grams fat
- 480 calories
Wheras, a man size bowl of crunchie nut cornflakes, with semi skimmed comes in at:
- 31 grams carbs
- 6 grams protein
- 4 grams fat
- 178 calories
So basically, the curry has loads more calories, loads more fat, but far less carbs, and far more protein. So, on the surface, the corn flakes look to be the healthier start to the day, in terms of calorie content, and grams of fat...
But hold on.... what about when that bowl of cereal doesn't fill you up? and you opted for a cheeky cadburys fruit & nut chocolate bar from the office vending machine, to supplement your oh-so-healthy Western brekkie... what would be the calorie scores then?
Fruit & Nut Milk chocolate bar (42grams)
- 25 grams carbs (56g total combined with corn flakes)
- 6 grams protein (12g total)
- 4 grams fat (8g total)
- 220 calories (398 total)
So really, a pork curry is not that far different from a bowl of corn flakes and a choc bar is it?....
What about a Bacon McMuffin for breakfast?
- 29 grams carbs
- 16 grams protein
- 14 grams fat
- 310 calories
OK, enough of diggin myself into a hole here, curry looks to be a pretty unhealthy choice for breakfast... But getting up to the dreaded tesco's to get hold of a packet of frosties every damn week is a royal pain, so, curry is what the fat falang eats for brekkie.
... and for those of you still reading who are looking for some kind of thoughtful conclusion to this post, I took a cross-sectional survey of local Thai folk in SB, and I asked them what they had for breakfast...
The answer everytime?
Rice.
Useless.
S'funny you should write this today 'cos I've just had a heated debate with her indoors about bringing grub to the land of smiles.
Walking the mutts this morning we saw hundreds of huge field mushrooms up to 30 cms (I do not exaggerate) growing wild.
So, I thought of you and mentioned that you might appreciate some Byfords sausages, a kilo of dry cured smoked bacon, some mushrooms etc. When we visit during our impending trip to Suphan.
She ain't impressed (muttered about smuggling etc.) so I think it's best if I don't bring it................
Don't worry I'll put it in HER suitcase.
Posted by: Captain P | October 31, 2009 at 12:07 PM
yes please bring them all. bring a suitcase of them all!
Posted by: Ben Shingleton | October 31, 2009 at 12:26 PM
Ben my boy what you need is your oats for breakfast. The rolled type-you know the ones that grow in fields.
Yes they do have them here in LOS. Makes a cracking bowl of very healthy porridge that keeps the hunger pangs away till noon and your cholesterol low forever!
Guess the Thai equivalent might be rice porridge-but then they go and spoil it with all that fatty goo that they put in!
MTF frequently makes me feel queasy as she tucks into a huge portion of fish soup and I'm sure you know they don't waste any bits of the fish (pork or chicken for that matter).
BTW I do like Thai food-just not for breakfast!
Posted by: Mike | October 31, 2009 at 02:56 PM
Mike, you are 100% right. I like making my own porridge and I used to eat that most mornings before the bad habits / fried stuff took over. You've convinced me, I'm going to get some from the dreaded tesco.
Posted by: Ben Shingleton | October 31, 2009 at 11:11 PM
Sunday Morning and no black pudding! So it's only Pork & Chive sausages, smoked dry cured bacon, flat mushrooms, fried tomatoes, baked beans, eggs and fried bread and a cup of tea this Sunday.
Read it and weep, they don't call me the cholesterol kid for nothing. Enjoy your porridge.
Posted by: Captain P | November 01, 2009 at 08:10 AM
ha ha v funny. I wont be rude cos then you wont bring any with you....
Posted by: Ben Shingleton | November 01, 2009 at 08:35 AM
I have to say I love me some Thai breakfast and curry is always a good start to the day.
Posted by: Talen | November 02, 2009 at 08:48 AM
LOL indeed Talen, curry is a good start to the day, but like a fried breakfast is a good start to the day, if you do it everyday, you expand...
Posted by: Ben Shingleton | November 02, 2009 at 11:32 AM
This is true Ben, it can't be an every day affair but most days it's not so bad. Considering when I'm up country I eat a lot more fish than normal it kind of evens out. Of course a bunch of the fish is fried too lol.
Posted by: Talen | November 03, 2009 at 07:21 AM
Yeah the Thai diet certainly isn't all healthy. I think a lot of us Western folk are drawn to the unhealthy stuff as well.... I am anyway... Cheap curry, cheap fried chicken, cheap beer. Fat mans heaven!
Posted by: Ben Shingleton | November 03, 2009 at 12:47 PM
..and you get all the pastries, doughnuts, waffles... plus those little weird things they fry like tiny pancakes and fold over with that gooey stuff in the middle ... Its a total nightmare ;)
Posted by: Ben Shingleton | November 03, 2009 at 12:52 PM